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Friday, August 12, 2016

Big GOP Donors Ignoring Donald Trump And Funding Down Ballot Races

RedState - Friday August 12, 2016

by streiff

As, and I'll say it again, we've been warning on RedState since February, the big danger of a Donald Trump candidacy -- assuming he loses, if he wins there are plenty more YUGE dangers out there -- is that he will take hundreds of state and local GOP candidates down with him. Voters are increasingly unlikely to split a ticket, in 2012 only 26 of 435 Congressional districts voted for president and representative of different parties.

Billionaire Paul Singer was an early and generous backer of Mitt Romney in the 2012 campaign, investing $1 million in a super PAC supporting the Republican presidential nominee more than a year before the election.

In this year’s White House contest, however, the hedge fund magnate has made clear that he’s not putting any resources behind Donald Trump. Instead, Singer is spreading his money down the Republican ballot: He shelled out more than $7 million through the end of June to nine super PACs backing congressional candidates.

He’s in good company. Some of the country’s wealthiest Republican donors are targeting Senate and House races around the country, hoping a financial firewall will protect the party’s congressional majorities on Nov. 8. Their investments — fuel for a record haul by super PACs this year — reflect a fear prevalent throughout the party: that Trump’s contentious candidacy threatens to trigger an electoral rout up and down the ballot.

Those worries spilled into public view Thursday, when a letter signed by more than 75 longtime GOP officials and party veterans asking the Republican National Committee to shift its resources to vulnerable Senate and House candidates was made public.

The best outcome for the GOP, as a party, in November, is for a Trump blow-out electoral loss while retaining the House and Senate. This would sent a clear sign that it was Trump that was the problem. And it has to be a huge loss because if it is narrow the Branch Trumpidians will be howling about their dolchstoss at the hands of conservatives. This funding effort by deep pocket donors may be exactly what is needed to salvage something from an otherwise horrific year.